DISCLAIMER: Hey Arnold-not mine, never will be.

"Bob, Miriam… I'm home." I said, more quietly today.

"Oh, Olga, you're little friend Alfred came by here." I glared at Big Bob, "Oh, er, Helga.." he grumbled.

"Arnold?"

"Yeah, that's the one." he pointed out.

"What did HE want?" I folded my arms.

"How the hell should I know, he's your little weird-headed friend, not mine…" he walked into the living room, probably to catch one of his beeper commercials.

"Mom, I have a problem," I said, moping into the kitchen. I'd been years since I'd actually depended on Miriam to help me out with ANYTHING and it was especially hard to come to her about… boys…

"Yeah, what is it, dear?" she said, slowly, paying more attention to her blender than to me.

"See, there's this boy-"

"Would you like a smoothie?" she popped open the top of the blender and poured two glasses.

"No. ANYWAY, see at first-"

"Not now, sweetie," she said dismissively.

"What? You just asked me to-"

"Not now, dear, talk to your father."

"I hate you…" I said, lowly, shaking my head.

"What was that, dear?"

"Nothing Miriam."

I hung my head and turned to walk out of the kitchen. "Oh, Helga dear, before you go up to your room can you take out the trash?"

"How much trash does this family accumulate in one day?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "I just took the damn trash out."

I damn near kicked the door down when I tried to open the door to my house. I was pissed off, yes, but that wasn't why. The trash bag was about the size of Harold. I shuttered. I had to drag the thing out and not bump it into anything. If it were to snag on a corner… well… the outcome wouldn't be so good. I slowly dragged it down the steps of my stoop and headed to the dumpster that was around the corner on the block.

"Need some help with that?"

"Patty?" I stopped dragging and looked up.

"Hey, Helga." she walked over and lifted the entire bag for me.

"Thanks…" I said, amazed.

"So… doing your parents dirty work?" she gave me the look of sarcasm.

"Yeah, no kidding." I smiled and walked along side her to the dumpster. I opened the lid and she threw the bag in. it was disgusting. The dumpster had been emptied recently so when she threw the bag into it, it exploded, literally. I closed the lid and stepped back. "What are you doing out here?" I turned to her.

"Eh, I was just in the neighborhood." She shrugged.

"Patty," I started softly, "can you… you know," I shrugged, "help me out with something?" I scratched the back of my head nervously and looked away.

"Sure, what's on your mind?"

"Arnold came by my house and I was wondering-"

"Did you go see him?"

"No, but see that's the problem, should-"

"Go see him."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." she gave me a wink. I smiled warmly in return. There was a silence between the two of us. I looked at her with appreciation… with respect. She would no longer be "Big Patty" to me… She would be simply "Patty Smith", the name she was given, but that people like me took away from her in elementary school.

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I walked up the stoop to the Sunset Arms. I was scared and I didn't even know why. Talking to him making me nervous, imagine that. I knocked on the door and waited for a few seconds.

"Hey, aren't you Bob Pataki's kid?" answered his grandfather.

"Yeah, you got a problem with that, bucko?" I raised my fist. OK. I'm threatening his grandpa… I gotta get a hold of myself. I dropped "Old Betsy" to my side and smile brightly. He raised an eyebrow.

"'Ey, Arnold!" he yelled, "Ya' gotta visitor. It's Bob Pataki's kid!" he scratched his head in confusion and left the doorway.

"Helga?" Arnold walked to the door, "What are you doing here?"

"You came to see me today?" I folded my arms.

"Oh, right. Can we go somewhere and talk?" I nodded hesitantly and he walked out of the boarding house, closing the door behind him. He walked passed me, down the stairs of his stoop then waited for me. I followed.

It was dark by the time we found ourselves at Geraldfield. I sat down in the grass and looked up at the moon. What a romantic moment this would be, I thought. Arnold walked over and sat next to me. He hadn't said anything since we left the boarding house and the more time that went by the more worried I was becoming. He sighed and laid back in the grass. I looked down at him, "Well?"

"Well, what?" he asked, softly.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" I asked further. I laid back in the grass with him, both of us staring up at the sky. It suddenly occurred to me that this is how we were at his house the last time I was there. We both laid on his bed, staring out through his skylight.

"I talked to um, Lila today." he said.

"About what?" I was noticeably irritated.

"She said that she cared about me," my heart started beating faster, "she said that we would be good together and that she was wrong to leave me at the cheese festival," it began to race, "she wants me back, and," he paused.

"And?" I asked, barely able to keep my voice from shaking under the urgent beating of my heart.

"I accepted." he finished, softly. My heart stopped. It broke into a million pieces and scattered like the stars in the night sky. I stayed quiet for a minute as I needed to register the awful information that had just assaulted my ears.

"That's…" I stared, "That's… great." I finished small, almost inaudibly.

"Really?" he sat up, and looked down at me. I kept my gaze at the sky.

"Sure. I mean, whatever floats your boat." I finished sarcastically.

"Whatever you say, Helga, whatever you say…" he sighed and laid back down in the grass. It seemed to be one of those moments where words weren't needed. We just laid there, thinking. I was terribly hurt, thought. How could he have settled for "little miss perfect"? He could do much better… I was suddenly caught in my own thought. Better? Like me? I'm not better than her, am I? After all, she's prettier than me, more popular, more charming… I was suddenly filled with confidence. I was pretty too! I could be charming! And well, no offence, but the popular thing really didn't interest me too much.

"How could you do this?" I spat, sitting up. He was startled at first.

"Well gee, Helga, I wonder," he replied, instantly knowing what I was talking about. It lead me to believe that he heading on the same train of thought I was, moments before.

"What are you talking about? First you get on my case at school for some 'unknown' reason and now you're throwing it in my face! What the hell is wrong with your football-shaped brain!?"

"It's not unknown, Helga, you know what I'm talking about!" he yelled back, sitting up as well.

"Like hell I do!" I threw my hands up into the air, "Tell me, WHAT do I know?"

He blushed. "Sid told me-"

"Sid? What does HE know?" I asked. He glared at me, "Ok, fine, go on…"

"He told me that, well, that you… that…" he stammered.

"Well? Out with it! Tell me so I know why I'm going to beat the crap out of him tomorrow!" I grabbed onto his shirt collar.

"He said you were pregnant!" he shouted, flinching, reading for me to hit him no doubt. I still held onto his shirt. I stared blankly at him.

I blinked twice, then burst out laughing, letting go of him. I fell back onto the grass and rolled around. He looked strangely at me.

"I don't think it's funny, Helga…" he said sternly.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you th-HAHAHAHAHA, thought I was-HAHAHAHAHAHA, PREGNANT?!?!" I laughed continuously, then slowed down. I whipped away a tear then continued, "Wow, I needed that. Thanks football head."

"Why are you laughing?" he asked confused.

"Look, I'm not carrying anyone's 'love-child', buddy. I would LIKE to think you know me better than that." I calmed down and returned to my sarcastic attitude.

"I did, I do!" he said, "It's just well, I don't know… I was-"

"You were jealous, weren't you?" I asked, mockingly, standing up.

"No, I wasn't jealous."

"Don't lie, you were, why else would you make a big deal about this?" I winked.

"I wasn't jealous!" he said.

"Arnold was jealous! HA! How funny is that?" I stood up.

"Stop it, I wasn't jealous, Helga!" he said. He sounded just like a toddler. It made me smile. I walked away from him a little.

"So, why are you telling me this about Lila, you KNOW I don't care." I faced away from him.

"Well," he started, "I don't really know, myself…"

"Liar…" I said so softly he didn't hear me.

There was silence again.

"Helga?"

"Yeah?" the mood seemed softer.

"Do you think you could… maybe… love me?"

"What?!" I choked out, "No, why would I love YOU?!"

"It was just a question! And I know you like me!"

"Yeah, how?" I challenged, placing my hands on my hips.

"I don't know, I just do!"

"Wrong answer!" I said.

"You wanna know how I know? Why did you sleep with me?!" he shouted. My eyes shot wide open.

"I don't know… I…" I stammered. He stood up and started walking towards me with a angry look in his eye.

"Why?"

"I don't know, I wanted to!?"

"Why?"

"Because I did, and you were there!"

"Why?"

"Why were you there?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why did you do it?"

"I just said why!"

"Wrong answer, Helga!" he said, nose to nose with me. He seemed determined to get the answer he wanted. I'd never seen him act like this before… well, he started like this the day we got into I.S.S… but not like this.

"You were just there, got it, bucko?" I said, glaring at him. Two could play this game and I wasn't about to back down.

"Why? Why me? Why not someone like Stinky?"

"Stinky? Um, no."

"Well?"

"Stop it! Leave me alone!" I backed away from him slowly.

"Why?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" I backed up faster.

"I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!" Then it happened. He practically lunged at me. I shrieked as I was slammed to the floor. Did… Arnold just tackle me? Ha! Now I'd seen everything… or rather, felt, everything. Damn that hurt my ass.

"What th-" He straddled me and pinned my arms to the grass of the field.

"I'm not letting you up until you tell me the truth." he said matter-of-factly.

"You know, I COULD yell rape," I said, looking straight at him.

"Go ahead and try."

"RA-" he quickly moved one of his hands to cover my mouth.

"Heh, heh," he laughed nervously, "That's enough of that." I didn't move to push him off even though I now had one arm free. When he realized he'd left my arm free he went back to holding it down. "So, are you going to tell me why? We can stay like this all night you know…"

I raised an eyebrow.

He blushed again and I smiled on the inside. I was making him uncomfortable again.

"If I tell you, will you get off me?"

He nodded.

"O-ok…" I looked away from him, "That time with you… I did it because… I… well, that is… I wanted it to be… with… you, too." I looked back up at him. He waited for me to continue, "And I guess you could say that I…"

"Like me, like me?" he smiled, bring up the childish words.

"Don't get smug, football head," I said, trying to gain my intimidation back.

"Oh, don't worry, I wouldn't dream of it," he still grinned, and I found it in myself to smile back. "Can I tell you something?"

"Sure, why not?" I said.

"I didn't really accept Lila's plea for me." he smiled down at me.

"You WHAT?!" he made me react to nothing?! Son of a…

I pushed him off of me and rolled over so that I was now holding him down. He laughed the entire time, though, "What did you take me for?" he laughed more, "Like I would just give into someone I didn't care about!" he laughed a little more, "I would LIKE to think you know me better than that!"

I held his arms to the ground and looked down at his stupid grin… and… smiled my first REAL smile in a long time…

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You know what makes me mad? I've never seen "Arnold Visits Arnie"… EVER!! Grr… I would LOVE to see that episode and Nick just hasn't shown it so far… oh well, hope you liked this chapter. Please review! I wanna know what you guys think! ;)